Author Archives: Tamara Akcay

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James Charles, pop culture and dollar bills. A strange combination for an astonishing result. The artist transforms traditional portraits on bills into random movie characters, singers and artists. He only uses ink and paint to trace and re-write on the bills. The result is witty and fun to watch.

It all started out with random doodling on a couple of dollar bills. James Charles was not even aware of the treasure he was carrying in his pocket as he was spending the bills. He therefore decided to store them in a magazine, using it as a safe. The more he drew, the larger the magazine got.The mutant bills have their president’s faces changed into male and female pop culture inspired characters. James Charles added a script below the faces, naming or giving hints in case we miss them.Yoda, Einstein, Mister T, Willy Wonka, Princess Leia, Spock, Iggy Pop, Kiss and many others are altering the seriousness of the symbolic of money.

The artist drew on 5 dollar bills as well as on 100 dollar bills. The value of money is put aside here to focus on the true meaning of a paper bill components: paper and ink. So little and meaningless elements for such tremendous stakes. By associating easy recognizable pop features, James Charles is aiming to reach the mass. He has done it again more recently in Monstro Eyegasmica, a mix of popular iconographies such as The Kiss by Klimt or the use of sarcasm with some of the Disney characters. A series of paintings and collages blending pop culture and vibrant colored characters.

James Charles’ Monstro Eyegasmica series will be displayed at the Joseph Gross Gallery in New York until November 25th 2015.

A tragic love story interpreted and represented in real life. Georgian sculptor Tamara Kvesitadze has created in real life the two characters who, despite their love, cannot be together. The sculptures are made out of metallic discs and are moving daily, embracing each other and parting in different ways.

Tamara Kvesitadze’s ‘Man and Woman’ installation depicts Ali, a Muslim boy and Nino, a Christian Georgian princess. It’s a symbolic representation of the Soviet Russia invasion which forces the two lovers to separate and leave for opposed directions. This tale is inspired by a novel by Azerbaijani author, Kurban Said.

The sculptures are 8 meters (26 foot) tall and are moving every day at 7pm for 10 minutes in the seaside city of Batumi in Georgia. If we look at the video above, we notice that as the sculptures move the metallic discs fit together and the bodies merge. The purpose behind this installation is to illustrate how elements, within a world where everything and anything is moving, can be synchronized and create attraction. (via Juxtapoz)

730 liters (193 gallons) of white paint were needed to cover the 1625m2 (2000 yards) rooftop of an old chocolate factory in Moscow. Pokras Lampas and his team manufactured 4 big brooms of 1 meter long each that he used to ‘write’ on the floor. During 2 days, the artist designed and producer Sergey Valyaev filmed the experience. (See the video above) Alternatively showing the talent of Pokras Lampas, the huge surface he used a his canvas and the passion and wonder which transported the young artist. The whole team a.k.a. Smokin’ Heroes, risked the possible rain and the potential delay of the paint delivery coming from another city to achieve the colossal artwork.

The entire surface of the rooftop is covered in calligraphy in concentric circles in a language ‘dedicated to the moments of inspiration and creativity’. The aesthetic and the style is close to artist Retna’s work which, at a smaller scale, also covers walls. The cursive letters and the urban locations used by artists who calligraphy create a modern approach to a traditional art. Behind the performance, there’s a desire to trigger visual excitement for the eyes.

A myriad of cut-out patterns invading a newspaper layout. Myriam Dion creates intricate motifs using a scalpel and newspapers she chooses according to their images. This French-Canadian talented student has already been acclaimed for her work. The art pieces she designs are airy reconstructed poems.

Myriam Dion picks front covers from the Herald Tribune, Le Devoir, Cape Cod Times or FT Weekend and selects images which speaks to her. She then creates negative space by hand cutting minuscule patterns. The entire page is cut-out. Generating a halo of waves and starbursts. The ornaments she designs at the edges and around the original shape of the newspaper mimic Arabic patterns and add fantasy to the layout.

The artist has invented her own organic way of transforming a simple medium into an art piece. By cutting and perforating the thin and fragile papers, Myriam Dion is making the rendering even more delicate than it originally was. The colors, thanks to the placement of the cut-outs, twirl and whirl sporadically on the surface.The pieces, placed on a white background and revealing the negative spaces are treasures meant to be contemplated and used as a mean for evasion. (Via The Jealous Curator)

Wookjae Maeng creates ceramic sculptures exclusively representing animals. Most of the time hung off the wall like trophies or mixed with human body parts. His purpose is to not only to trigger a feeling but also a reaction when facing the pieces. Environment, nature and human kind are themes the artist wants to support. He is choosing ceramics to do so.

The animals Wookjae Maeng designs are perfect depictions. Deers, rhinoceroses, mice, pigs and rams, the variety is large. The details of the features are flawlessly imitated. The artist chooses to apply neutral colors to the body of the animals. A dominant of white with a touch of grey, black and brown. The eyes are the part that’s always rendered in shiny gold no exception.

The relationship between the animals and human kind is the focus here. The artist wants to create a 3 way conversation. ‘Within this process the viewer not only intellectually comprehends the work but also viscerally appreciates it if their preconceptions are challenged or senses other than sight are stimulated.’ The presence of nature and its creatures needs nurturing and special care. In an elegant and optimistic way, Wookjae Maeng is suggesting that we all take care of each other, however small and insignificant we may appear to each other. (Via Trendland).

Women at different stages of their lives posing in seductive, awkward and humorous poses. Chanel Von Habsburg-Lothringen, in her series ‘Seduced and Abandoned’, creates photo collages with singular elements and wide close ups of skin and hair. Using her own method, she depicts the theme of abandonment. A testimonial of events from her past and feelings left from a traumatic up-bringing.

Chanel Von Habsburg-Lothringen collects 1970’s National Geographics. She is influenced by the unusual lay out of the ads. She also uses poses from 1980’s magazines archives as inspiration for her shootings. The exaggerated close ups and the appearance of elements such as medical supplies, a doll and a set of false teeth attract the viewer despite the oddity of the pictures. Most of the props were used by the artist’s grandmother and evoke fragility and mortality.One of the major component of the work is the use of a plastic mask and a wig. Generating an unsettling feeling, it increases the viewer’s curiosity of knowing more about the person hiding behind the mask. The grouped images, piled up in one area of the frame creates a claustrophobic feeling.

It is of course all orchestrated by the artist. Her purpose is to trigger an introspection.By displaying domestic activities in her work blended with flesh and enticing poses, Chanel Von Habsburg-Lothringen narrates her story as an abandoned child and her reality at home at that time. Wanting to say it all through the collages, the artist seems to install a distance between herself and the viewer. The mask and the wig are a way to progress incognito while she is telling her story.The grandmother, used a symbol of death and mortality combined to a bright contrasted background blurs the lines of the artist’s intentions to reveal it all through her art. “creating photographs where it is unclear if the subject is reflecting on her own past, looking forward to the future, or trapped somewhere in between.”

A wall patterned with vibrant colorful real insects. Jennifer Angus is arranging the species she appreciates the most on a hot-pink background. The opening of the Renwick Gallery across from the White House in Washington DC has welcomed artists to use different kind of mediums to surprise their future viewers.

The series of in situ installations is called ‘Wonder’. From room to room the curator wants the viewer to be amazed. The different styles ornating the gallery are brought together in a way that the viewer can’t recognize what he is admiring until he comes closer and immerses himself into the decor.

Jennifer Angus’s room revolves around patterns. From far, the general aspect imitates a wall paper. The artist, a former textile designer, knows how to play with the motifs. She is inspired by patterns ‘to which repetition is inherent’. 5000 insects, weevils and small beetles were handpicked and displayed by the artist mainly in the shape of skulls. This symbol of mortality combined with the insects meet her purpose, which is to highlight the fragile features of human kind. Her installation is called ‘In the Midnight Garden’. A reference to the glow created by the iridescent blues, greens and lilac tones.

The disclaimer on the artist website indicates the insects were all collected from Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand and Malaysia. She does not alter their original colors and she is reusing each one of them for each exhibition, carefully putting them away in boxes.

Metal splashes of water twirling around space. Chinese artist Zheng Lu is suspending his favorite element in the air. He is also imprinting calligraphy letters onto the body of the sculptures for an extraordinary result.

The artist uses a plaster base to carve the shape of the spatters. He laser-cuts the thousand letters on the stainless-steel metal and and heats up the whole structure. This process allows the metal to be distorted and the different parts to be assembled. The rendering are 3 dimensional large-scaled water splashes with intricate traditional calligraphy Chinese letters spread out onto the surface.

Zheng Lu has been fascinated with water explosion since little. And he was introduced during his upbringing to the art of calligraphy. He has been nourishing his passions through his art since he was able to make art.The spatters are extremely detailed. From the voluptuous circular shapes to the micro drops of water, the artist depicts water as close to reality as possible. The sculptures can either be suspended or laid on the floor.

The artist’s pieces are esthetically beautiful. They also are telling a story. The letters he is depicting onto the sculptures are texts inspired by literature and poems. The world of art of Zheng Lu is synonym of harmony. It’s a world where movement and stillness are contrasting concepts yet one cannot survive without the other.